Why Africans do do what they do: arguments, discussions and religious transmission in Angolan Pentecostal churches in Lisbon

In this article I intend to describe the processes through which senses and ideas of "Africa-ness" are set in discussion within Pentecostal churches of Angolan frequency in Lisbon. I will show how ideas os "Africa"- and, as referential, "Europe"- are invoked in their local sermons in the context of a pedagogy of religious experience, ideological creativity and determination of "cultural memory". In doing so, I will debate current approaches to memory and religious experience (namely the cognitive approach", in order to describe the processes of transmission that build on those ideas of Africa and Europe, and also make a stance for the importance of "arguments" and "discussion" in processes of religious definition and experience. I will argue that, in contexts of migration and ecounter, senses of religiosity are debated throught methods such as "topographical adscription", "epistemological definition" or "translation".